Gaming vs. Reality on a Race Track

Swedish gamer Fredrik Brolin passed the
ultimate gaming test when he managed to win a race against a real racing driver
at Circuit de Catalunya in Barcelona. Fredrik has won racing games before, but
this time he was strapped into the passenger seat of a racing car driving
through hairpin turns and down straights at breakneck speed.

As a racing
gamer, what is left to do after you’ve beaten the game at the highest
difficulty level, defeated all your friends, won online and all that remains is
polishing milliseconds of your lap times? That was the question Viagame asked
in the Shotgun Driver project, the first in a series of experiments aiming to
push the boundaries of gaming.

The calm before the storm

Fredrik was
chosen for the experiment in mid November after he managed to qualify in
competition with more than one hundred other applicants.. Since then, Fredrik
has been playing the same car on the same track on his computer for 3-4 hours
per day in preparation for the Barcelona event.

On 6
December an expectant and slightly nervous Fredrik Brolin entered the passenger
seat of a Renault Mégane RS 265 RB8 Limited Edition at the prestigious Circuit
de Catalunya in Barcelona. In the driver’s seat sat Peter Tärnström who frequently
races super cars on tracks all over the world.

”I was very
nervous, I didn’t know whether I’d start throwing up or get a serious headache”,
says Fredrik. ”But I was hoping I would beat Peter, I had prepared well.”

In order to
convert the passenger seat of the Renault to a racing gamer’s dream the
hardware engineer Lars Liljegren had installed a custom built and g-force
resistant ASUS-computer equipped with a Nvidia GTX680 graphics card, a Logitech
G27 wheel and a screen in eye level.

Gamer vs. Racing driver

When the chequered
flag signalled the end of the race, Fredrik ended up as the victor with a 4
second margin. According to Fredrik it was his meticulous preparations that earned
him the victory.

”It was an
extreme experience, we raced at over 200 kilometres per hour and sometimes it
was difficult to separate game from reality,” says Fredrik. ”Sometimes I’d push
the throttle all the way down as Peter hit the brakes going into a corner
because my body thought the game was going too slow, which made me enter the
corner way too fast.”

Isabelle
Ewert at Viagame comments Shotgun Driver, ”We wanted to push the limits of
gaming and we’ve done just that. Now we want to bring the experiences and
insights we’ve gained to our audience.”

Viagame is an online gaming destination with
more than 2000 games as well as live broadcasts from some of the largest eSport
events. Viagame is also conducting a series of experiments that push the limits
of the gaming experience. Viagame is the site that celebrates all gamers and
wants to break new ground within online based gaming services.

Viagame is a part of Modern Times Group (MTG).
An international media company registered on Nasdaq OMX Stockholm. Viagame is a
part of the MTG subsidiary MTGx and is available across the Nordic and Baltic
regions.